Belarus tries Tijanóvskaya and other opposition leaders in absentia

They have not even been able to contact the supposed lawyers assigned to them by the very regime that is judging them in absentia.

This Tuesday the macro-trial against opposition leaders began in a court in Minsk (Belarus), including Svetlana Tijanóvskaya, who united all the candidates in the 2020 presidential elections under her vote. “It is not a trial, but the revenge of Alexandr Lukashenko", the politician has affirmed in a public video in reference to the president of the country allied with Russia.

Tijanóvskaya, who took the baton from her husband after being arrested before the elections, has been accused of more than 10 charges, including treason against the state.

Today she is in exile in Lithuania.

“The dictator does not understand that the problem is not in me, but in him.

It is he who lost the elections, terrorizes the people, sold the sovereignty of Belarus to Russia and throws our country into war”, denounced the opposition leader in reference to Lukashenko;

and she has lamented that her nation has become since 2020 "into a machine of repression and terror."

Together with Tijanóvskaya, her campaign manager, María Moroz, has also been charged;

another close collaborator of the candidate, the political scientist Olga Kovalkova;

trade unionist Sergei Dylevsky;

and the former Belarusian minister and ambassador Pável Latushka, today head of the opposition platform in exile, the Popular Anti-Crisis Directorate.

All of them have been accused of being part of an alleged conspiracy to seize power by force, having led an extremist group and making appeals aimed at harming the country's security and creating discord.

The 2020 citizen protests were massive, casting even more doubt on the official results of an election where the entire opposition claimed that there was enormous fraud.

According to the Central Electoral Board, Lukashenko obtained 80.1% of the votes with a very high participation, compared to 10.1% for Tijanóvskaya, who at the last moment brought together the rest of the political forces due to the arrest and exclusion of their candidates.

Tijanóvskaya was proclaimed the winner of the presidential elections in February 2022 from her exile in Lithuania, and announced the creation of a coordination council with the rest of the opponents to manage future protests and the transfer of power once Lukashenko does not control the presidency.

"This trial in absentia where people are not allowed to defend themselves violates our fundamental rights and freedoms," Tijanóvskaya lamented in her statement.

"The lawyers are appointed by the regime and, if you have your own lawyer, he risks going to prison," he added in his complaint, where he stressed that they could not hear all the charges against him either and that, after all, , everything was a farce: "The henchmen of the regime act in this trial as judge, prosecution and defense."

The Belarusian state news agency, Belta, says the court has dismissed appeals to stay the trial brought by Minsk-imposed lawyers against the activists.

On these currently weighs a preventive detention order for rebellion.

The regime has also included several particular positions for each opponent.

Tijanóvskaya has also been accused of treason to the state, seizure of buildings and obstruction of the Central Electoral Commission;

while Latushka, for her part, was charged with excessive use of authority and accepting bribes.

Pavel Latushka was Minister of Culture of the regime between 2009 and 2012, as well as ambassador to several European countries, including Spain, until 2019. In his office in exile in Warsaw (Poland) he has several accusations hanging on the front door. against him, some of which he believes could lead to execution because the death penalty is still in force in Belarus.

“How can a

pass sentence if he is also the

?

How can a

defend yourself if you don't hire him, but the KGB?", The opponent criticized this Tuesday from his Twitter account.

"Today is my turn among the thousands of Belarusians convicted by the regime for political reasons," Latushka said along with a video fragment where the room was seen practically empty in the first session of his trial.

How can"judge"pass sentence if he is also"prosecutor",how can"attorney"defend you if he is hired not by you,but by KGB?

Today-my turn among thousands of #Belarusians convicted by regime for political reasons.

"Trial"of @PavelLatushka , @Tsihanouskaya &our colleagues @rada_vision pic.twitter.com/NWsTFYPrzv

— Pavel Latushka (@PavelLatushka) January 17, 2023

A couple of tweets earlier, the activist picked up another story that documents the repression of the regime: the trial against the Belarusian-Polish journalist Andrzej Poczobut.

The reporter faces in his trial in Grodno (a Belarusian city) between five and 12 years in prison and, according to Latushka's sources, has refused to write a petition for clemency to Lukashenko.

In the images of the court, locked in a glass cabin, the journalist from the newspaper

never lowered his eyes before the fixed gaze of the guard who was guarding him.

More than 1,000 political prisoners

According to the Viasná platform, as of January 17, 2023, there are 1,437 political prisoners in Belarus.

Citizens and opposition leaders alike suffer the persecution of Lukashenko.

The politician Sergei Tikhanovsky, Tijanóvskaya's husband and initially a candidate for the presidency of Belarus, was arrested in May 2020 and sentenced a year later to 18 years in prison on charges of organizing mass public disorder, despite having been arrested before the summer elections.

Now, the Investigative Committee accuses him of a disobedient attitude in prison for which he could extend his imprisonment for two more years.

Tijanóvskaya was one of the tips of the iconic women's trident that led the opposition in the summer of 2020 along with Verónika Tsepkalo and María Kolesnikova.

The latter refused to be expelled from the country by force and was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

A month ago, her relatives and lawyers discovered that she had been admitted to intensive care for an ulcer after being locked up in a punishment cell without being notified.

Yesterday, the Telegram channel of opposition candidate Viktor Babariko, also imprisoned before the elections, at least offered good news for the opposition: “[Kolesnikova] has been transferred to a working group from the medical center.

She gets tired, but she starts to gain weight and she feels good”.

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